WOMEN'S FORUM

Auckland Star, Issue 17, 21 January 1932, Page 13

WOMEN'S FORUM

A remarkable club

Bv their recent long-distance flights, Mr. Butler, Miss Peggy Salaman, and Mr. Store have qualified for membership of the Ancient Order of Aerial Hikers, -tnis is a recent and exclusive organisation, and its title indicates its purpose. The founding members of the order are Squadron-Leader Gavford and FlightLieutenant Bett, the "two R.A.F. officers who made the non-stop flight to Cairo, and who are now planning to pilot a Jong-range Fairev-Napier monoplane to the Cape. The A.O.A.H. will no doubt one day become as famous as the Caterpillar Club, of which no one can become ■ a member unless he has saved his life by • parachute. INDOOR GAMES. The decreased value of the £1, the i shadow of the January income tax, and Mr. Snowden's advice to stay at' home, have caused a, boom in indoor parlour games, states our London correspondent. > nakes and ladders, oribb/ig'e, «vnd Newmarket are all popular, but the prime favourite is ludo, which has remained popular for over forty years. There is a big revival too, in the parlour games that our grandparents played, and some West End stores are ransacking their attics for old cardboard boxes of games with coloured pictures of dudes and mashers, and hansom tabs and ladies with leg o'mutton sleeves. As an antidote to this interest ill "mnsc'uni pieces," there is a marked increase in the number of roulette players in this country. CHOOSE CAREFULLY. People who find it easy to look, rather larger than they wish unless their clothes are very carefully chosen, will do better to confine their use of stripes and checks, if they want them at all, to waistcoats and scarves; and to have the coat and skirt in a plain colour. Although it is perfectly true that vertical stripes emphasise and even create an appearance of height, it is equally true that they jump to the eye, and are apt to fix this organ upon their wearer more critically than is always desirable. These warnings, of course, apply principally to the 1 larger patterns and particularly to those with strong contrasts in colour". Most of i the small checks and mixtures add gaiety to their surroundings without increasing the apparent girth of their wearers, j Town coats and skirts, whether of tweed, ' suiting, cloth, or jersey, usually have fur trimmings, detachable or firmly fixed. Country suits in the heavier tweeds are itsually cut on classic lines, but witli rather more aiiugness. about the waist than we. have worn for some years, to bring them into line with the rest of the wardrobe. Country suits in the thinner tweeds and jerseys often have cardigan jackets: but these also arc careful to define the waistline neatly, and often exchange the unbelted cardigan coat for a double-breasted and belted short jacket. NEW MARRIAGE LAW. Rumania, supreme in romance amongst the piquant Balkan States, is turning its back on frivolity. KingCarol's old tutor. Professor Jorga, who recently became Prime Minister, lost no time in beginning a. campaign to sober down Bucharest, the "Little Paris" of the Balkans. Three days after the new Government entered office, Premier Jorga issued a decree forbidding "painted female employees'' to enter State offices while on duty. Following a similar order from the headmaster of a Rumanian school to his pupils forbidding the use of lipsticks, powders, etc., they replied in the Press:—"We decline to be brought up by antediluvian methods. Rouged lips, polished fingernails and waved hair are more important !to us than the knowledge of Latin, [Greek or other insignificant matters. |We do not wish to be as ugly as our | grandmothers, and think marriages are more valuable than school certificates." Another blow at the romance we have been taught to expect from these colourful countries was the law passed a few months ago, by which Rumanian officers must marry girls with a sufficiently large dowry to render them capable of contributing to the household expenses. The officers receive such small pay that unless the wife has an income of her own family obligations force the couple to live on a low economic level, beneath the dignity of the Rumanian army. No officer under the rank of captain may marry a woman who has not an income of at least £48 a year. The dowrycapital to provide the stipulated minimum income is a large sum of money in Rumania. Very few of the professional classes, civil servants, and least of all, fellow-officers could afford the required dowry for each of his daughters. Thus an unrestricted field of courtship is the privilege of the rich officer on]y, and the poor girl's chance of marrying one of the dashing, handsome-as-an-operette-heroes depends upon whether she herself earns the required income.